President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the proposed amendments to Nigeria’s Electoral Act.

In a letter addressed to the Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, the president stated amongst other reasons that the amendments infringe on the rights of INEC.

The amendments proposed by the National Assembly sought to make some changes in Nigeria’s electoral act including changing the sequence of the 2019 election.

The federal lawmakers want their election to come up first, followed by that of state lawmakers and governors, and lastly the presidential election.

Reasons given by the President:

” A.The amendment to the sequence of elections in Section 25 of the principal act, may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize, undertake and supervise elections provided in Section 15(A) of the third statue to the Constitution;

“B.The amend to Section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates, unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process;

“C. The amendment to Section 152 Subsection 325 of the Principal Act may raise Constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections,”

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